


The Thief Gets Caught

by StariWolfe



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s), Originally Posted on Tumblr, i'm new to this how do you use tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 06:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17892953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StariWolfe/pseuds/StariWolfe
Summary: The commander and her best friend get caught by some bandits while hunting for treasure! How will they escape? And why were they hunting for treasure near these bandits in the first place?





	The Thief Gets Caught

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This was originally posted to Tumblr on the blog nocte-argentea, and a character page is there as well if you'd like visuals for what these characters look like.

“So, Vess, how exactly are you gonna get us out of this mess?”

“What, have no faith in me? I'm working on a plan as we speak!”

“HEY! You two keep quiet! Unless yer finally ready to give us the info we're lookin' fer!”

Vesper turned her head to look towards bandit who'd spoken, who was guarding the room she and Altair were currently confined in. Gods, she wanted to punch him. Unfortunately, with her and her sylvari companion currently standing back to back with their hands tied to a wooden board above them, she couldn’t indulge in that fantasy. Not yet, anyway. She rolled her eyes, though, since the bandit didn’t even bother to look at them when he yelled to be quiet.

“Oh, I’m terribly, sorry, sir, we were just discussing what to tell you lot. Right, Altair?”

Doing her best to flash Altair a roguish grin, she went back to what she'd been doing with her hands. Damn ropes won’t get themselves off.

“Oh yes, absolutely, you are absolutely right!” Vesper breathed a small sigh of relief. Thank the Gods he got the message to placate the guard. He even made his voice sickly sweet to sway him. The guard, seemingly satisfied by those answers, went quiet. Altair, having learned that regular speaking voices were a no-go, started speaking in hushed whispers.

“Alright, how exactly are we getting out of here? I don't fancy being tortured until we admit that what the tabloids say about Lord Faren are true.”

Vesper forced herself to stifle the laughter that was about to erupt. Kormir knows that would only make things worse. She paused her movements for a quick moment, regarding him coolly.

“Do you truly not have faith in me, mate? You know I’ve gotten us out of stickier situations!”

“Most of the ones that you could be referring to didn’t have a time limit on them. We've got ten, maybe twenty minutes before they come back with torture devices. I’d really prefer not to be skewered today, Vesper.” Altair didn’t even want to imagine what they'd do to him. And by the tree, what would they do to Vesper? That thought alone was enough to nearly bring him to tears.

Not that he'd actually let the bandits see that they had him scared. Or let Vesper see how worried he was about her.

“Give me about fifteen seconds.”

“Fifteen seconds? Vesper, that’s not enough to do anything! What could you possibly-”

He blinked.

When did Vesper get in front of him? And how were her hands free?

“How in the hell-”

“Old trick that Tybalt taught me. First you-”

“Actually, never mind. Could you release me, please?”

“Oh, I’m not sure. I was planning on leaving you here since you didn’t trust me, but since you asked so nicely, I guess I’ll let you go.” Vesper was clearly enjoying herself now, smirking at him while reaching to undo his binds. Once he was free, the next dilemma became apparent.

“Now that that's out of the way, what’s the plan for getting out of here? We need our weapons, and we can’t just walk out through the door without causing a ruckus.” Altair was astounded that the guard hadn’t noticed them yet. Actually, now that he really listened, he swore he heard snoring coming from the direction of the tunnel.

“Well, we can either kill every bandit in this hideout, make a run for it, or disguise ourselves and just walk out. I’m leaning towards the last one, personally.” It was probably their best bet, as well. They were ridiculously outnumbered, and Vesper was certain they'd call in reinforcements if they raised a fuss. Not only that, but from what she'd seen, there’s too many to simply sneak their way out. Espionage was the safest way to go.

“So then, we need to look like bandits. I’m assuming we can…relieve the guard of his garments, but that'd only fit me. What about you? And what about when he wakes up?”

Vesper began to respond, but something caught he attention. Footsteps were coming down the hall.

Altair noticed the sounds at this point. Thinking quickly, both of them darted to either side of the door, waiting for their chance.

“Yew idjit, fallin' asleep on guard duty!” a female voice chastised the guard. “What if th' prisoners had-” the new bandit stopped, looking at where their prized captives used to be tied up.

“…escaped?”

Before either of them could raise the alarm, they were swiftly knocked cold by the commander and her lieutenant.

“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting that. Lets relieve these two of their garb and tie ‘em up like we were.”

One they’d changed clothes and trussed up the bandits, they put out the one torch that was present in the room. It’d be a lot more difficult to tell it wasn’t them if the room was dark.

“Should we put more clothes on them? This feels...odd.” Currently, the former prisoners’ clothing was folded up, hidden within their disguises. It wasn’t noticeable, thankfully, but Vesper felt odd leaving the bandits in just their undergarments.

“Vess, they were going to torture us or possibly kill us. Let them be humiliated.” Altair adjusted his hat and mask, to facilitate speaking. “Now, then let’s get out of here. First stop: the armory.”

The disguises worked like a charm. None of the bandits even spared them a second glance. Thankfully, the armory was easy to find, and soon enough Altair had his greatsword, and Vesper had her rapier and dagger. The only scare they even had while working their way out of the hideout was when someone mentioned ‘the wealth of information the commander must have’ in passing. 

When they could finally see the entrance to the cave, Altair could hear an uproar beginning in the deeper parts of the cave, meaning they’d been discovered.

“Alright, Vessie, any ideas now?”

“Stay calm, act natural. When we get out of the cave, run.”

“Just run?”

“Aye, mate, just run. Once we’re on open space or forest, we’re golden.”

They bypassed the cave guards without any issue, and once they were out of sight, they ran straight to the nearest forest, hoping to lose their pursuers in the dense woods. Finally, the sound of angry bandits faded, and the two wayward adventurers got a moment to rest. As they began to change back into their original clothing, with Vesper on one side of a tree and Altair on the other, the thief had a thought.

“Hey, Altair?”

“Yeah, Vess? What’s on your mind? Got a victory speech to share?” Altair said jokingly, feeling much better after getting out of that mess, and much less skewered to boot.

“Maybe later. First, I need to apologize.”

That caught Altair off guard.

“It was my fault we got caught. If I hadn’t insisted on looking for treasure near the moa farm, we wouldn’t have gotten in that mess.” It was a false lead that led them there, to boot. She’d led Altair, on a rumor, to search for a treasure that didn’t even exist, and gotten ambushed by bandits in the process. 

Altair didn’t know how to respond to this. In all honesty, he’d come to expect danger when treasure hunting with Vess. His mind flashed to a month ago, when the two of them, plus Nocte and Luna, had ended up being chased by a few fire hydras in the Crystal Desert when on a treasure hunt. Technically speaking, that was much more dangerous. So why was she apologizing now?

“It’s water under the bridge, but if you don’t mind my asking, why apologize? I know the risks when coming treasure hunting with you. Also, may I walk around now? Are you decent?”

“Aye, you may. And it’s because I asked you to accompany me here on a false lead that ended up getting us caught.” She waited for Altair to walk around the tree to continue. “See, I wanted you, specifically, to join me…” she paused, leaning back against the tree, “because my contact said something about a Dawn being hidden in this cache.”

Oh. The precursor to the legendary greatsword he’d been working on. That explains a lot.

“Vesper, you wanted to help me?”

“Of course, you’ve been helping me with my crafts, I wanted to give you a helping hand too!”

Altair, thoroughly flustered at this point, looked away and ran a hand through his hair. “Vesper, you help me and everyone else so much already, you don’t have to do anything else. And I need to apologize, too.”

“Wait, what? You’ve not done anything wrong though!”

“Except that I let my nerves and fear get the best of me and forgot to trust you in the bandit hideout. I should know by now that you’ll do your best do get us out of any sticky situation.”

Vesper went silent at that. She’d not cared about his fear, it was totally natural. She sighed and looked at Altair with her trademark roguish grin. “Wanna say we’re both dumbasses then and move on, mate?”

The sylvari let out a hearty chuckle, before bowing to her. “I’ll accept that for now, but let’s be frank: I have the most common sense out of all of Dragons’ Watch.” He offered his arm, and Vesper hooked her own arm within it.

“Aye, that you do.” The two began the trek towards Divinity’s Reach with a spring in their step and in much higher spirits.

“Oh, by the way, I’m telling the rest of the guild about this misadventure.”

And like that, Vesper’s spirit was shattered.

“WHAT!?”

“Oh, of course! I’m sure that Nocte and Luna would love to hear about how you got us caught and tied up by run-of-the-mill bandits.”

She stared up at the man, who was currently wearing an incredibly smug grin.

“I should’ve left your ass tied up in the bandit hideout.”


End file.
